The Raven is once again hoping to take flight.
Gerard Butler is in negotiations to star in the Universal sci-fi action project, which has seen several iterations since it made its debut as a hot short in early 2010.

Gold Circle has now come aboard to co-finance the production, with Universal distributing the movie worldwide.

Universal picked up the rights to the short, directed by Ricardo de Montreuil, in December 2010 after eight months of on-and-off, back-to-life negotiations. When it finally settled at the studio, it attracted Liam Hemsworth, but that phase passed as well.

Now with Butler and Golf Circle, Raven is looking like it may be before cameras this year.

De Montreuil is still on board to direct. Michael Gilio wrote the script based on the short film’s story by de Montreuil and Antonio Perez. (Justin Marks wrote an early draft.)

Raven, the short, focused on a young man with powers being chased around downtown Los Angeles by robotic police drones, while a giant police ship coordinates the effort from the skies above.

For the feature, Gold Circle’s Paul Brooks now joins Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson, who originally brought the project to the studio.
Gold Circle COO Scott Niemeyer will executive produce with Nick Osborne, Trevor Engelson and Oly Obst.

Butler, repped by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment, is coming off the surprise hit Olympus Has Fallen.

The Gold Circle-Universal partnership is the latest collaboration between the two companies, coming after the strong performance of musical comedy Pitch Perfect and with the two being currently in production on the comedy Search Party.